Common Loon

The eerie calls of Common Loons echo across clear lakes of the northern wilderness. Summer adults are regally patterned in black and white. In winter, they are plain gray above and white below, and you’ll find them close to shore on most seacoasts and a good many inland reservoirs and lakes. Common Loons are powerful, agile divers that catch small fish in fast underwater chases. They are less suited to land, and typically come ashore only to nest.

Typical Voice

Size & Shape

Common Loons are large, diving waterbirds with rounded heads and dagger-like bills. They have long bodies and short tails that are usually not visible. In flight, they look stretched out, with a long, flat body and long neck and bill. Their feet stick out beyond the tail (unlike ducks and cormorants), looking like wedges.

Color Pattern

In summer, adults have a black head and bill, a black-and-white spotted back, and a white breast. From September to March, adults are plain gray on the back and head with a white throat. The bill also fades to gray. Juveniles look similar, but with more pronounced scalloping on the back.

Behavior

Common Loons are stealthy divers, submerging without a splash to catch fish. Pairs and groups often call to each other at night. In flight, notice their shallow wingbeats and unwavering, bee-lined flight path.

Habitat

Common Loons breed on quiet, remote freshwater lakes of the northern U.S. and Canada, and they are sensitive to human disturbance. In winter and during migration, look for them on lakes, rivers, estuaries, and coastlines.

Juvenile

Similar Species

Red-throated Loons and Pacific Loons are smaller than Common Loons, with more slender-bills. They are more fond of saltwater than Common Loons. Red-throated Loons tends to hold their dainty bills pointed upward, above horizontal. Pacific Loons have thinner bills and more smoothly rounded heads than Common Loons. In winter Pacific Loons, gray meets white in a straight line running down the neck, whereas for Common Loons in winter, this smooth pattern is broken by a partial white collar. Double-crested Cormorants have more slender, orange or yellow bills with hooked tips (the hook can be hard to see at distance). They are more uniformly dark than Common Loons. Western Grebes have much longer necks than Common Loons, with needle-like yellowish bills. Male Common Mergansers show considerably more white on the body than Common Loons, and in flight both sexes show white patches in the wings that Common Loons lack.

Find This Bird

On a North Woods lake in summer, loons stick out conspicuously as large, tuxedoed birds swimming about in the middle of the lake. They can be very vocal and easy to locate, as the yodeling of one loon will often elicit a chorus response from other loons in the area. In winter, loons adopt a much quieter profile along coastal waters, wearing drab, gray plumage. They typically stay close to shore, though, so a scan out to sea with your binoculars will often reveal loons hidden among the waves.